


Drifting in the Foam

by APT



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bickering, Feels, Gen, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Trauma, Zhao (Avatar) Is An Asshole, some of those are blink and you'll miss it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:40:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26098762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/APT/pseuds/APT
Summary: “Zuko!”The Wani has just exploded in the harbor.Iroh runs, cursing his old bones and that last slice of cake.Canon divergent from S1 EP18 "The Waterbending Master"
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 97





	1. What You Get

**Author's Note:**

> Ever watched Avatar - or anything really - and thought "there is no way they survived that." If so, then this is this is the fic for you.
> 
> Update: You can now find me on Tumblr at @apt-silverouroboros

“Zuko!”

The _Wani_ has just exploded in the harbor. 

Iroh runs, cursing his old bones and that last slice of cake.

_“It’s a lovely night for a walk. Why don’t you join me? It would clear your head.’_

_Zuko stares angrily at the ceiling in silence._

_‘… Or just stay in your room and sit in the dark.”_

The bridge is in flames and his nephew was in his room and he is close enough now to see the outline of their ship through the smoke and the fire. Iroh reaches the end of the dock and stops. He recognizes the smell of blasting jelly on the breeze and hopes his nephew’s death was quick. The tower is in pieces.

Iroh feels the heat even from a distance. He sits, and he breathes.

When the townsfolk come out to investigate, he ignores them. Slowly, the fire dies down; eventually, it goes out. A hand rests on his shoulder, another under his arm, helping him stand, guiding him back into town, into a home, into a bedroom. They can’t start searching for a body until dawn.

_“... Or just stay in your room and sit in the dark. Whatever makes you happy.”_

In the dark, his knees give out and he collapses onto the bed. He does not sleep.

If only he’d made Zuko come with him.

That boy could be so stubborn.

—

In the morning, he leaves the borrowed room when he hears the family who has done him such kindness begin to shift and whisper. This is a fishing village and the family keeps early hours. They will lead the search. 

The village gathers. Iroh listens.

“The Prince...”

“Something got the dog all excited, but when I went out back to see, there was nothing there.”

“I swear it was an iguana-parrot.”

Pirates.

**Zhao.**

Of all the brave, foolish things his nephew had done, rescuing the Avatar from Pohuai Stronghold - alone and with swords, no less - is the one he is most proud of. Even if his nephew’s intentions were... not the most noble.

Zhao will not outlive his nephew by long.

—

A small sailboat finds his body floating in the bay mid-morning.

The fishermen lift him with reverence and lay him with care on the wooden planks of the dock. Zuko’s head rests at an unnatural angle. They straighten it gently.

Iroh does not remember falling to his knees, but finds himself there.

Please, no, not again. 

Iroh pulls his nephew half into his lap, cradling Zuko’s head in the crook of his arm. There are small cuts around the boy’s face and the leather strap binding his hair is coming undone. He tries to fix it, but it unravels instead. 

Zuko is cold. Too cold for one born of fire. Too cold even for the singed, drenched clothing that soaks Iroh’s robes. The dragon-gold eyes - dragons Iroh had hoped Zuko would one day meet – are now cloudy white.

His nephew’s fire has gone out. Zuko is dead.

Iroh weeps. 

—

They build a platform on the beach for a funeral pyre and wait for sunset. 

“Prince Zuko.’

‘Fifteen.’

‘Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Brother of Azula... Beloved nephew of Iroh and Su Yi, now passed... cousin of Lu Ten’ – Iroh’s voice cracks – ‘now passed.’

He lights the pyre.

‘We lay you to rest.”

—

In his room he looks at the pearl inlay on the sheath of the dagger he’d given to Zuko five years ago, after they’d broken through the outer wall of Ba Sing Se, and pulls the knife from its scabbard.

_Made In Earth Kingdom._

He flips the blade over and reads the true inscription.

_Never give up without a fight._

Iroh regrets teaching his nephew this lesson like he regrets the Siege of Ba Sing Se.

_“...Whatever makes you happy.”_

He wonders if Zuko would have been happier (would have been happier and lived longer) had he not been so persistent.

Iroh sheaths the blade and tucks it into his robes.

—

Murder the moon spirit in this sacred place? How dare he.

The soldiers accompanying Zhao fall quickly and the coward himself flees into the city, but Iroh corners him on an icy bridge with a wall of flame. 

“Pirates did not kill my nephew.”

The coward tries to back up while babbling excuses the retired General does not hear. Zhao slips, Iroh strikes. 

Before he pushes the body into the canal, Iroh takes the knife from his robes and cuts off Zhao’s topknot. 

Zhao’s armor sinks out of view. 

Iroh tosses the topknot into the water and walks away.

When he returns to the oasis, the white haired girl is gone and the moon is bright. 

—

“Zhao killed my nephew.”

The girl - Katara - touches her necklace.

“Our mother died in a Fire Nation raid.”

Iroh places a hand over the dagger tucked in his belt.

...

Azula is sent to the Earth Kingdom to hunt the pirates who killed her brother. Ozai must make some show of vengeance, no matter how little he truly cares. 

If you ask her, Azula will tell you her brother was weak and a fool; what did he expect? 

But when she finds the pirates, they wish she hadn’t. These are her first.

...

An ostrich-horse does not get stolen from a healer’s home.

...

A young boy from a small farming village is dragged off to serve in the army after throwing eggs at a group of Earth Kingdom soldiers. Fortunately, he survives the war.

His older brother does not.

...

Fighting Azula in an abandoned town, Iroh still gets hit with lightning, and she still escapes. Katara heals him.

Iroh teaches Aang the art of lightning redirection.

...

Flying over the Wan Shi Tong Desert, they discuss plans for the Day of Black Sun.

An opaque spot in the cloudless blue sky, the moon watches. 

In his heart, Iroh knows it is wrong to ask children to fight the battles they do.

...

Iroh decides to remain outside Ba Sing Se. 

A tea shop continues to sell mediocre tea. 

...

Iroh remembers his son’s birthday.

...

A girl named Jin does not go on a date with a boy named Lee.

...

Ba Sing Se still falls. The Avatar escapes.

...

Azula returns triumphant. She has taken Ba Sing Se. The filthy pirates who killed her brother are dead. (Zuzu was hers. No one breaks her toys but her.) She is heir to the throne.

But she didn’t capture the Avatar. Father is angry, even if he doesn’t say. She knows it.

She will not fail him again.

She fails him again.

...

Azula is abandoned on the balcony after her first kiss. It does not hurt. It doesn’t. She is better than him; she is better than all of them. 

When they leave, Ty Lee pushes over vases, Mai shreds couch cushions with a blade, and Azula sets the decorative banners on fire. The party breaks up as people flee, screaming. Azula smiles. 

They agree Ember Island is a terrible place.

...

Iroh tells Aang the story of Sozin and Roku. He wishes he were telling someone else. 

...

No one goes on a life-changing journey with Zuko.

...

Aang disappears four days before the eclipse. The Fire lion-turtle delivers him to the capitol.

...

With Sokka’s plan, Iroh’s information, and Yue’s blessing, they take Caldera City on the Day of Black Sun.

...

Ozai is powerless. Azula, bound, screams at the missing and the dead. Aang pities her. Katara does not.

...

Iroh remembers holding Ozai for the first time - Iroh was a teenager - small, golden eyes staring back at him. The sages said golden eyes were the mark of a powerful fire bender.

Zuko’s were the same color.

He finds it hard to look his brother in the eye.

...

The assassin named Hashin Wei does not die on a job at the Western Air Temple.

...

Iroh finds Ursa, but she does not remember him or his family. He supposes this is a blessing. He leaves her and her new family in peace.

—

There is a moment of calm between when the fighting stops and the responsibility begins. He brings Zuko’s ashes with him to the family monument where Iroh’s wife and son reside, placing the ashes and the dagger in the nook next to his son. 

“Hello there, my little spark...’

‘I brought your cousin Zuko to see you.’

That space was supposed to be for him, many years from now.

‘You will always be my little boy, but-‘

Tears fall in silence.

‘Ever since Ba Sing Se… I thought of him as my own.”

Zuko should be here. Lu Ten should be here. But Iroh had misused so many years killing other men’s sons. 

They did not deserve this; he does.


	2. What You See

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You want more emotional pain, you say. Well, here is something to make it hurt even worse. :)

A fisherman and his friend sit at the back corner table that has been theirs for the last twenty years half-foxed on cheap sake.

“I thought it was the guy that led the invasion of the North.’ It takes the fisherman a moment to think of his name. ‘Admiral Zhao.”

“No, I’m telling you it was him.’

‘Think about it.’

‘They’re the only two people still on the boat, and he just happens to go for a walk before their ship explodes.’

The friend mimes an explosion.

‘Either he’s got Agni’s own luck, or he was in on it.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. I saw ‘em once, he seemed to like the boy.”

“He seemed to like the boy – Paaagh! – anyone can seem to like anyone. I seem to like you... doesn’t mean I do.”

“Then why don’t you leave me and my drink in peace and go bother someone else. My ears want a break,” the fisherman replies.

“Maybe I will.”

The fisherman waits. The friend grumbles into his cup but doesn’t move. 

“Everyone knows Zhao lost an Agni Kai to the boy. Haven’t seen an Admiral who doesn’t mind losing one of those to a teenager–”

“You’ve never seen an Admiral.”

The friend continues as if he doesn’t hear.

“–even if he is a prince. Heard Zhao tried to blow his head off when he lost.”

The fisherman thinks. “The pirates could’ve told us.”

“Those disgusting men are dead, and good riddance. Don’t be an idiot.”

“Maybe they worked together. They did sail north together for the invasion.”

“Yeah, but the Admiral ended up dead.”

“So did a lot of men.”

A moment of silence.

“Do you think Ozai killed Azulon?” The fisherman asks. 

“I thought that was obvious.’

‘The wife disappeared at the same time the old dragon died. She probably helped Ozai do it, and he had her killed to keep her from doing the same thing to him.”

“That family is cold-blooded.”

They both shiver even though the tavern is warm. The friend leans forward.

“You know what they call lightening? The cold-blooded fire.’

‘You know the fire benders who know how to make it? The royal family.”

An uneasy silence.

“Do you think anyone heard us?”

“No. Who would believe a couple of old fools like us anyway?”

**End**


End file.
